Various procedures can be used for bonding a dental element, such as an orthodontic bracket, to a tooth of a patient's dental arch. For example, an orthodontic bracket may simply be placed against a desired area of the labial or lingual surface of an individual tooth and bonded to the tooth. Proper location of an orthodontic bracket depends on the skill of the orthodontist. Properly locating and then bonding orthodontic brackets on a tooth-by-tooth basis may not be an efficient use of patient or orthodontist time.
A more efficient procedure involves first creating a model of the entirety or a portion of an individual's dental arch in any of various ways such as by taking an arch impression and then using the arch impression to create the model from any suitable material. Orthodontic brackets are then located at desired locations on and temporarily adhered to individual teeth of the model by a releasable material, such as wax or a weak adhesive. Next a material which is initially shapeable, but will eventually assume a shape for holding the brackets in the positions at which they have been temporarily adhered to the teeth, is applied over each bracket in a manner extending continuously from one bracket to the next. Silicone is an example of such a material. Once the material ceases to be shapeable, it and the brackets which it is holding in their desired positions are removed from the model. After any residual adhesive has been removed from the brackets, the resulting device is ready to be applied to the patient's arch.
When the device is first applied, it can be placed to verify correct position of the brackets. Once that has occurred, the brackets are bonded to the teeth using any suitable process which creates a sufficiently strong bond for the particular orthodontic objective to be achieved. After the brackets have been bonded, the material which has been holding them is removed.
Silicone can be pulled off, but the silicone may separate from portions which lodged in undercuts and/or grooves of orthodontic brackets. Removal of the residual silicone fragments is typically performed manually using a pick.